The present invention generally relates to an electronic information filtering unit for improvement in functioning of a computerized electronic device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a previously-browsed information adaptive filter unit that integrates or plugs into a web browser for improvement in functioning of a computerized electronic device.
Many Internet and other data network users today utilize web browsers, which are executed on their computerized electronic devices. A desktop or laptop computer user, for example, may search for and download electronic information by interacting with a computer web browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Google's Chrome. Typically, a computer web browser is configured to fetch and download electronic information from a website's host server, and then display the downloaded electronic information as a webpage on the computer web browser. A user is then able to interact with the downloaded electronic information on the webpage via embedded hyperlinks and clickable items.
Furthermore, in recent years, browsing an Internet webpage on a mobile device's web browser has also become a daily routine for many mobile device users. A mobile device, such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, or another type of handheld computer, typically incorporates a touch-sensitive display screen for receiving and invoking a user action to embedded hyperlinks or items displayed on the mobile device's web browser.
In some instances, a redundant display of electronic information that has already been viewed, clicked, and/or utilized by the user on a particular web page reduces the amount of “fresh” information that can be displayed on the particular web page. As the consumer utilization of the Internet increasingly moves towards smaller-screen displays on mobile devices, a screen real estate utilization for information display on a mobile web page is increasingly becoming critical for both Internet browsing convenience and Internet advertiser effectiveness.
For example, a mobile device user may not want to scroll a webpage up and down on a mobile display just to browse through already-reviewed or already-interacted information from a content-providing website. Instead, at least in some instances, the mobile device user may prefer viewing only new articles, contents, and hyperlinks, especially considering the small screen size of the mobile display. In a mobile computing environment, the mere presence of the already-reviewed or already-interacted information displayed on the mobile device could become a source of inconvenience, clutter, and distraction, as the precious screen real estate is allotted to displaying already-reviewed or already-interacted information, instead of fresh contents, which the user may prefer to see. Likewise, even in a desktop computing environment, the presence of the already-reviewed or already-interacted information displayed on a computer display panel during web browsing may be considered unnecessary and cluttering to a computer user.
Furthermore, from an Internet advertiser's perspective, a merely-repeated display of already-reviewed or already-interacted information via a website may reduce an advertising space on a display screen, especially in case of a mobile device advertising application with a limited display screen space. Moreover, redundant or repeated contents that no longer attract attention from a website user reduce effectiveness of online advertising, while also hampering advertisers' opportunities to provide diversified or customized advertising materials that correlate to fresher contents provided by the website.
Therefore, a novel electronic information filtering unit that can be plugged in or integrated into a web browser to improve functioning of a computerized electronic device for user convenience and online advertising effectiveness may be highly desirable. Furthermore, a novel electronic information filtering unit that can identify, determine, and replace a user's already-reviewed or already-interacted information with fresher contents may be highly desirable.
In addition, a novel electronic information filtering unit that can uniquely infuse fresher contents to an existing webpage to replace a user's already-reviewed or already-interacted information only, while keeping “not-yet-reviewed” or “not-yet-interacted” information intact in the existing webpage, may also be highly desirable in some situations.
Moreover, a user settings menu interface that plugs into or integrates with a web browser to control a previously-browsed information filter on/off mode and a filter duration timer may also be highly desirable for user convenience and online advertising effectiveness.
Furthermore, a method of operating a previously-browsed information adaptive filter unit for improvement in functioning of a computerized electronic device may also be highly desirable.